Posts Tagged ‘access to care’

The Absurdly Profitable Business of Prior Authorizations

March 15, 2024 — Prior authorizations are a driving force in the burnout of physicians, denial of medical care, and the profitability of health insurance and pharmacy benefit plans. By one estimate, healthcare providers spend $35 billion every year on chasing down prior authorizations so that their patients can receive the care they need – whether that is a […]

Scarcity, Greed, and Drug Pricing in an Election Year

March 10, 2024 — For many of us, it’s just too painful to think about. But a rerun of the 2020 presidential election is coming and drug pricing is likely to be a big talking point for both of the major candidates. President Biden is talking about corporate greed while former President Trump is talking about reviving an executive […]

Indication for Heart Health Marks a New Era in Obesity Treatment

March 9, 2024 — It’s official. FDA now says that semaglutide, in doses used to treat obesity, can prevent heart attacks, strokes, and deaths in persons with cardiovascular disease and overweight or obesity. This is nothing short of the dawn of a new era in obesity treatment. FDA Division Director John Sharretts said it clearly: “This patient population has […]

Obesity Care Week: Equity for a Treatable Chronic Disease

March 6, 2024 — One of the core principles Obesity Care Week is that this chronic disease is treatable. That’s becoming plain to see with emergence of advanced GLP-1 therapies. But equity in access to obesity care is practically non-existent. Prices for these medicines are high, supplies are low, and health plans make a sport of torturing people who […]

Pretending to Keep the Cost of Treating Obesity Down

March 4, 2024 — Today marks the start of Obesity Care Week and all over the globe, this is World Obesity Day. To mark this day, dozens of advocates from all of the major organizations that care about improving the standard of care for obesity have converged on the U.S. Capitol for dialog with policymakers about opening the pathway […]

Health Systems Hindering Health for People with Obesity

March 1, 2024 — In a new cohort study, it is plain to see that, even before the advent of new GLP-1 medicines for obesity, primary care patients could get better health from obesity care. But health systems hindering delivery of obesity care make this exceedingly unlikely for most people living this disease. A Large Cohort Study from an […]

The Rise of Forced Choices Between Money and Health

February 18, 2024 — Who knew that financial toxicity was a thing? Perhaps like us, you have merely thought of it as the financial burden of healthcare – without assigning it the status of a medical complication that dysfunctional healthcare causes. But recent publications are making it ever more clear that people living with chronic diseases are having to […]

Patent Thickets to Boost Obesity Medicine Prices

February 9, 2024 — Are patent thickets boosting the prices of obesity medicine prices and putting these important medical advances out of reach for everyone but the wealthy and well insured? A new paper in JAMA this week suggests this is true – at least in part. Rasha Alhiary and colleagues explain: “Manufacturers have secured long periods of market […]

Make Believe About Obesity Blended with a Social Agenda

February 3, 2024 — We confess to a significant amount of fatigue with a social agenda related to size and weight getting overlaid on the medical concern of obesity. The bickering of people who want to make believe that obesity is a purely social issue can be too much to bear. This has been one of those weeks. Moral […]

The Essence of Autonomy in an Obesity Bill of Rights

February 1, 2024 — Yesterday, the National Consumers League and the National Council on Aging introduced the Bill of Rights for People with Obesity. At the heart of eight simple points in this document is a demand of respect for the dignity and autonomy of people living with obesity. 1. The Right to Accurate, Clear, Trusted, and Accessible Information […]